My Reply and Refutation to Prof. D. Appleyard
Department of Languages and Cultures of Africa
London WC1H OXG
e-mailda3@Soas.ac.uk
Recently, I’ve read your “Afro-asiatic
and the Nostratic Hypothesis” /www.academia.edu/4166944/Afroasiatic_and_the_Nostratic_hypothesis/. You have laid claim to
being an “expert” in Ethiopian languages. Your deliberate distortions especially
upon Amharic and Ge’ez (Ethiopic) need rectification. No wonder, being the
student of the late Edward Ullendorf, one of the many proponents of the south
Arabian origin of Ethiopian civilization, culture, religion, agricultural
practices, languages, and history, you are there for sure to reiterate and
perpetuate without valid evidence whatsoever. This non-African dogmatic paradigm
of Semitic speaking colonial settlers in Ethiopia is the most pervasive
Eurocentric fabrication in 19th century. All of the subsequent treatises are based upon
the conjectural imported Semitic languages. The assumption of Cushitic, Nilotic and Omotic
languages have influence on Amharic and Ge’ez is a fable.
The invention of South Arabian
Semitic has the main objective of detaching Ethiopia from its African root and
to downgrade its ancient black civilization in the Nile valley. The independent
existence of Ethiopia since time immemorial, above all its resistance and
repulse the Europeans’ scramble for Africa has indeed become an anomaly to be
explained away. Therefore, so many self-called Ethiopianist scholars (Eduard
Glaser, Leo Reinsch, E. Littman 1913; Conti Rossini 1928; Enrico Cerulli 1941;
Neville Chittickl 1974), archaeologists, ethnographers, anthropologists and
historians have manufactured voluminous falsified accounts.
Arabian Peninsula was part of
Africa. It was first conquered by Egyptian Pharaohs and later by Ethiopian
Emperors. Ethiopia is the cradle of mankind and civilization. Ancient Egyptian
Pharaohs regarded Punt, Taneter- God’s
land as their ancestral homeland. During
the reign of the greatest Pharaoh Thotmes III (1479-1425 BC), Ethiopia was
incorporated with Egypt. Hence the name Habasha is mentioned on the walls at
Karnak among the 628 nations under his domain and he called himself the royal
son of the land of the South. His visit to central Ethiopia in the region of
Kalu is recorded. In the ancient region of Qohito, in northern Ethiopia, one
can see a grave alleged to be the tomb of a pharaoh and Murrno-Hay (1991) has
also published a picture of a Stela with ankh
sign engraved. Moreover, the deposit
at Haoulti has contained two earthenware amulets representing a Ptah-patec and a
Hatoric head. Hathor, goddess of love
music and beauty (nbt pwn), was Lady of Punt.
The throne at Haoulti-Melazo 8 km south of Axum has
two lateral bas-reliefs. These are similar to the ones at Deir el Bahri the
memorial temple of Queen Hatshepsut (1479-1457 BC), where one of the chiefs of
Punt named, Perehu and his wife Atiya, have been depicted. The statue of the seated woman with her hand
on her knees, dressed in a long robe and wearing a wide necklace composed of
three thick ringed strands does resemble ancient Egyptian and Meroitic queens
rather than any Semitic Asians and south Europeans.
Ancient Egypt (RMT KMT) and PWNT-Ethiopia, Da’amat and
Axum-Ethiopia have cultural, geographical, historical and racial relationships
ever since the pre-dynastic era. Egyptians have subjugated their neighbors in
the South (Nubians and Cushites) in the West (Libyan Berbers) and in the
Northeast the various Semitic nomads of Asia. Ancient Egyptians had a clear
difference between the Nubians and the Puntites. Egyptians classified four types of human races: red, yellow
black and white (H. Brugisch 1858).
The four races of the world
according to ancient Egypt: a Libyan (Themehu), a Nubian (Nehesu), an Asiatic
"Aamu), and an Egyptian (Reth). An artistic rendering by Heinrich Menu von
Minutoli based on a mural from the tomb of Seti I.
All contacts with the Punites have
been peaceful. Quite contrary to these historical facts, the Semitic nomads of
the Arabian Peninsula and the Middle East have been considered to be in the
Ethiopia plateau for their civilizing mission in Africa.
In fact the Arabian Peninsula and Mesopotamia were
originally inhabited by black Africans same as ancient Egypt and Ethiopia (Lenormant,
1890; Diop 1974; Asres Yenesewu 1943; Du Bois 1970; Keto 1989; Ani 1991, Asante
1991). According to Runoko Rashidi, the civilization of Sumerian was founded by
Nile valley migrants from Africa. The Sumerians called themselves the black-headed
people and spoke a language branch which rose initially from Ethiopia. That is
why ancient Akkadian, Amharic, Ge’ez and Elamite are cognate languages. We have
very abundant evidence from various cranial, skeletal, sculptural and textual sources
which have confirmed the racial origins of Sumerians as Nile valley Africans
that migrated to Mesopotamia. Elam was a black Ethiopian colony which has a
direct relationship with the Dravidians of Indian sub-continent. Elamite
language has the same phoneme and word order as AKkadian and Amharic.
Ge’ez, Amharic, Gurage and all
other so-called Ethiosemitic languages did not originate from the Arabian Peninsula
but in Ethiopia in the heart of Africa. Geez and Amharic are even older than Akkadian,
Aramaic, Hebrew and Arabic in Asia. Ge’ez (Ethiopic) and Amharic are two sisterly languages. This has been ascertained
by many genuine linguists such as Roediger and Dillmann. Both of them were
spoken by PWNT-Abesha people in Northeast Africa, Ethiopia. Historical records
for over nineteen centuries (2647-664 BC) from ancient Egypt bear witness to
the existence of a region and people in Northeast Africa. Egypt and PWNT/Punt
or Taneter (God’s land) had
bilateral trade. The Punites Abesha people used to export items such as leopard
skin, Ostrich plums and egg, live animals (cattle, baboons, ibex, giraffe, gazelles,
and cheetah), ebony, electrum, myrrh, etc (K.A Kitchen, 1993).
Geez became a literal language of the Ethiopians since
1700 BC. While Amharic like so many other languages such as Agaw, Beja, Noba,
Nubian, etc. was unwritten language of Africa for centuries. The absence of any
literary source material in any language does not prove either the
non-existence of it or its origin with respect of location and time.
Modern linguistic studies have shown that Afro-Asiatic
language phylum originated in the Nile Valley. The existence of Semitic
languages in pre-history Ethiopia is even prior to the human settlement of the
Arabian Peninsula.
The classification of the so-called Ethiopian Semitic
with South Semitic family is a very controversial issue. Since neither Ge’ez
nor Amharic cognate with South Arabian languages such as Sabaean, Himyaritic
and others. On the other hand, Ethiopian languages such as Amharic, Argoba, Ge’ez,
and the various Guraghe languages, Hareri, Tigre and Tigrigna are rather
directly related to East Semitic languages of Mesopotamia. Disregarding these
facts, Bender (1976); Ehret (1980); Gragg Gene (1991); Crass (2002), Crass,
Joachim and Ronny Meyer (2011) and others have gone so far by stating the
process of pidginization and creolization in the formation of Amharic language
in the 4th century AD during the climax of the Aksumite Kingdom. How can the
subjugated Cushitic, Nilotic and Omotic people influence the Semitic speaking Axumites?
This is paradoxical in the history of the world. Do the languages of the black
indigenous people of Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand etc. have influence
on English language? Is English influenced by the languages of Native Americans
in the USA? Is Portuguese influenced in Brazil by native Indios? Is the Spanish
language influenced by the indigenous people of Latin and Central America? Have
Hindi, Bengoli, Tellgue, Arabic, etc. influenced the morphology and phonology
of the English language? The truth of the matter is that both English and
French languages evolved through the very long processes of Pidginization and Creolization.
In case of English, it began as a dialect of West Germanic people such as
Angels, Frisii, Jutes and Saxons. In the 6th century AD the Saxons
of North West Germany conquered Britain. These invaders settled by displacing
the native Celtic inhabitants. Subsequently the Normans invaded in 11th century
and their settlement gave also an impulse to the process of Creolization and
ultimately developed the English language. It changed enormously from the 12th
to 15th century, both in grammar, in vocabulary and an extensive
sound changes too.
The French language developed also by a long process
of pidginization of Vulgar Latin with the languages of the invading Vandal
Germanic tribes from north and east such as Franks, Allmans and other Celtic
speaking original inhabitants.
The dubious plan of
classification of Ethiopian Semitic languages into north and south (Hetzron,
1972,1977) has been at last discarded by the great work of R. Voigt (North vs. South Ethiopian Semitic, 2019).
Furthermore, the immigration of South Arabian Semites into Ethiopia plateau is
disproved. In this regard, the contributions of Rodolfo Fattovic, 1977, 1978,
1989; Roger Schneider (1976) and Jacqueline Pirenne (1987) are very
significant. Ethiopic inscriptions found in Axum and Jeha area are older than
the inscriptions found in Yemen. Even without applying scientific methods of
determining the chronology of Pre- Aksumites’ civilization very low dates are
assigned to comply with their hypotheisis
of two different waves of immigration out of the Arabian peninsula.
According to Jacqueline Pierenne and Asres Yenesewu, the reverse is true. South
Arabia was a part of Ethiopia and the inscriptions found there were inscribed
by Ethiopians. Ethiopic script evolved from the ancient Egyptian
hieroglyphic pictographical writing
system. The proto-Sinaitic script which
was first discovered by Flinders Wiliams
Petrie in Serabit al –Khadem, in the Sinai region of Egypt and more recently
the discovery in 1999 of the “ Wadi el-Hol Inscriptions” found in Middle Egypt
near the Nile river by John and Deborah Darnel and published in 2005 was developed
sometime between about 1900 and 1800 BC.
Indeed Ethiopia has influenced the
civilization of south Arabian inhabitants and beyond.
1. Phonetic
The existence of labio-velars (ቈ
ኰ ኈ ጐ) or diphthongs
in Ge’ez and Amharic is very wrongly considered to be Cushitic influence (Leslaw 1955; Ullendorff 1955). Due to their
dogmatic belief of South Arabian origin of Ge’ez, they have given an
explanation whereupon “there is no evidence in unvocalized Ge’ez inscriptions and Semitic languages spoken in
Asia.” What a worst reasoned statement! Why do they expect Ge’ez and Amharic to
conform to the Semitic languages in Asia? However, the ancient and the first
“Semitic” language in Asia, Akkadian, has two diphthongs (aw and aj) and vowels
(a, i, u, ã, î, and û).
Ge’ez (Ethiopic) in Africa is more ancient and more
grammatically sophisticated than Aramaic, Arabic, Hebrew and Greek etc.
languages. In regard to phonetic, it must be first and foremost noted that
Ethiopic is the first language to crate vocalization in the first half the 3rd
century AD. Ethiopic script has seven vowel-sounds. On the other hand, Arabic
using a Nabatean-Aramaic script has begun with the three simple vowels (a, o,
u) only after the establishment of Islamic religion in 8th century.
Hebrew followed up very lately in 10th century AD.
2. Syntax/Morphology
Every time many “experts” echo that the word order in
so called modern Ethiosemitic languages especially of Amharic is due to the contact with Cushitic and Omotic
languages. Besides, they allege Geez is
not a “pure Semitic”. They do perplex the issue by stating the non-Semitic
characteristic of Geez is because of it’s intermix with Cushitic languages. The
word order in Ge’ez is the same as the Egyptian documentations of pre-dynasty,
Old-Dynasty and Middle–Dynasty of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic script.
Moreover, Egyptian Pronouns, pronominal suffixes, numerals and common vocabularies
have been attested in Amharic and Ge’ez.
The Amharic syntax (SOV) is similar to Akkadian,
Elamite, Sumerian, Hindi, Telgu, Parisian, etc. The”Cushitic influence” on
Amharic morphology is a myth of Orientalists. It does seem to go along with
their fabrication of Indo-European phylum during the colonization of the Indian
sub-continent by the British East Indian company (Tony Ballantyne, Orientalism and Race Aryanism in the
British Empire (2002). The Cushitic and Semitic divisive category of occidentals
is not at all accepted in Ethiopian history. According to the age old tradition,
Ge’ez is a language of the house of KA’AM
(ካም). Ge’ez means also number one, prior to, and the language of free people. Other “Cushitic, Nilotic
and Omotic“languages of Northeast African region have borrowed from Amharic,
Egyptian and Geez. Since these languages were very dominant in the region since
pre-history. Therefore, the lists of some words in Geez and Amharic vocabulary
which have been very wrongly attested to be loanwords (Praetorious, 1889, 1893,
Leslaw Wolf 1987, 1988, 1991; Appleyard 1977, 1978, 2006; Gregg Gene 1991; Paul
D. Fallon 2015, Blaz’ek Va’clav 2007) from Cushitic has to be dismissed.
For example, the
word in Ge’ez for chicken ዶርሆ/dorho
is derived from ደውርሀ which means to reproduce in great numbers. Thus it has nothing to do
with Cushitic loan word. So also the word for water wiha/ Wuha ውሃ in Amharic is derived from ውህህ ምህው ውሂህ here too no
Cushitic but only Amharic and Ge’ez.
There is not a drop of truth in what Appleyard
has written as follows:
“items denoting
universal features of the environment such as ‘moon’, cloud, stone, day (time),
salt and water, or name of body parts such as tongue, brain, knee, ear, lung
and hair would not be likely to be borrowed, but all of these items in Amharic,
a Semitic language of Ethiopia have
indeed been borrowed from various of the neighboring Cushitic languages,
whilst other Ethiopian Semitic languages retain items inherited Semitic
origin.”
As a
result here is the rectification of his mistakes.
The word for the moon in Amharic ጨረቃ - Che’reqa is derived from
the verb ጨረቀ(ጸለቀ ዐለቀ), it does clearly
signify the process whereby the moon light decreases from a full moon to no
moon, the phases such as the crescent, half-moon and full moon as well.
The word for cloud in Amharic and Ge’ez ዳመና/ ደመና is not a loanword. It is indeed attested in
the Ge’ez Bible Gen.9.11-17 ቀስተ ደመና since the 4th
century AD. Qesit (ቀስት) in Amharic and Ge’ez cognates with Akkadian qestum.
Stone in Amharic
and Ge’ez derives from the root denega’/ደነጋ (አበነ) to become a stone. Nomads of the region such
as Beja, Afar, Somali and Gallas (Oromo) and other neighboring sedentary
nations to have borrowed the word dengayi from Amharic. All these so called
Cushitic and Omotic language speaking people such as Agawu, Bilen, Kunama,
Kimant, Bejas, Afars, Somalis, Sidama, Hadya, Welayita, Kefichos, Gongas, etc.
were all subjects of the Ethiopian
state from the 3rd millennium BC to the decline Axumite Empire in
the middle of seventh century AD. Due to
the invasion of Beja Zanafidj and Noba groups from northwest and above all the
rise of Islam in Arabia across the Red sea resulted in the gradual declination
of Axumites Empire. The rulers were forced to abandon their ancient city, Axum,
and move towards the south in the Amhara regions. Amharic speaking Agawu
dynasty has then succeeded and ever since Amharic has become the official
language of the state.
Not only the Amharic words ጧት /morning/, ምሽት/ evening/, ማግሥት/ ma ’gist
(the next day) but also so many other items such as T’ena (ጠና)- become old),
መራ(lead), ከመረ(Pile up), አወዸ(proclaim), ነገደ(trade), ሾመ(appoint), ምንጭ(source), አለቃ (Chief), ዐረፈ(rest, die), በቃ(sufficient), አጤ(King of kings), ጋን(big jar), ዐቀደ(make plan), መቀየር(to modify), መትከል(to plant), ሐቅ(reality, truth),
ደረቅ(dry), ቅን(honest), ተነተነ(analyse), ፈተሸ(inspect, examine), ገመገመ( gemegeme-investigate), አጥቢያ/At’biya-county,
parish, ድንክ/Dink (dwarf), ሽፍታ Shifta ( bandit) etc. are attested in Egyptian
pyramid texts. This negates decisively all the fabrications of modern
Ethiosemitic languages and their origin in the Arabian Peninsula.
The words for salt in Amharic Che’wu ጨው which has so
many synonyms such as ganfer (ጋንፈር), lmedewu (ልመደው), amole (አሞሌ), ashebo (ዐሸቦ) and ashel
(አሸል) and in Ge’ez ጼው (Tseewu) are not loan words from any
Cushitic language. Quite the contrary,
these Amharic words have been borrowed by all so called Cushitic and Omotic
speaking people in Ethiopia. Ashebo is derived from Amharic word አስብ meaning very
valuable. Since salt is a valuable product for every household. Appleyard is so
confused with his speculation of Ashebo to be a loanword exclusively from
so-called lowland East Cushitic Galla (Oromo) language. However, Galla and
Somali nomads have a very recent contact with Amharic, Geez, Guraghe, Harari
and Tigrigna languages. Amharic replaced Ge’ez as the language of the Ethiopian
state since the 9th century AD. Not only in lexicon but also in
morphology and phonology Amharic language has become a passing fancy. The
various nominal and adjective formation in Amharic with suffixes such as -ኛ,-ማ,-ና,-ዬ ,-ያ, -ላ,-ጌ, etc. and its word order SOV have been featured as “Unsemitic”
and borrowed from Cushitic, Nilotic and Omotic languages such as Oromo Wolayita
respectively. This is completely incorrect. Appleyard asserts Oromo language is
a linguafranca in Ethiopia. It is not. He echoes what ethnic entrepreneurs such
as the so-called Oromo Liberation fronts are propagating. Amharic is spoken by
more than 85% of the Ethiopian population (Ronny Meyer, Renate Richter: Language use in Ethiopia from a network
perspective, 2003).
Your flaws regarding the body parts such as tongue, brain, knee, ear,
lung and hair have to be treated very thoroughly.
In Amharic the
word for tongue is milas ምላሰ/ምልሓስ which is derived from the root la’se ላሰ / ለሐሰ (lehase) to lick which cognates with Arabic, Ge’ez, Akkadian, Hebrew
and Aramaic. Amharic uses also the word ልሳን same as Ge’ez
and Akakadian ሊሻኑም lishanum. In Amharic if someone says: ልሳኑ ተዘጋ it does mean he is dead, he can’t more speak.
Moreover, ልሳን does mean name of any language. Lisane Amhara (ልሳነ ዐምሐራ), Lisane Arabia, Lisane
Ferensayi, Lisane Ge’ez (ልሳነ ግእዝ), Lisane
Tigrigna (ልሳነ ትግርኛ), etc.
The word for hair in Amharic is t’egur/ጠጉር. It is
derived from Ge’ez and Amharic word ጨጐረ፣ (ጸጐረ) to grow hair, to become hairy, fibrous (ጭገራም).
The Word for knee in Amharic is gulbet ጉልበት. It is derived from the root ጐለበተ-become
stronger, powerful and forceful. A synonym to this is the word birk/ ብርክ (አብራክ) which
directly cognates with Akkadian birkum.
The so-called lexicostatistical discourses and the very speculative
reconstruction of proto-Afro-asiatic language are all jumbled up together in
the field linguistics.
Conclusion
Ayo Momina
Ayomomina@yahoo co.uk
African archaeology
Egyptology and Linguistics
Department of Languages and Cultures of Africa
London WC1H OXG
e-mailda3@Soas.ac.uk
